, he slew him) was
afterward elected by the people (the Sicilians groaning to them from
under the like burden) to be sent to their relief: whereupon Teleclides,
the man at that time of most authority in the Commonwealth of Corinth,
stood up, and giving an exhortation to Timoleon, how he should behave
himself in this expedition, told him that if he restored the Sicilians
to liberty, it would be acknowledged that he destroyed a tyrant; if
otherwise, he must expect to hear he had murdered a king. Timoleon,
taking his leave with a very small provision for so great a design,
pursued it with a courage not inferior to, and a felicity beyond, any
that had been known to that day in mortal flesh, having in the space
of eight years utterly rooted out of all Sicily those weeds of tyranny,
through the detestation whereof men fled in such abundance from their
native country that whole cities were left desolate, and brought it
to such a pass that others, through the fame of his virtues and the
excellency of the soil, flocked as fast from all quarters to it as to
the garden of the world: while he, being presented by the people of
Syracuse with his town-house and his country retreat, the sweetest
places in either, lived with his wife and children a most quiet, happy,
and holy life; for he attributed no part of his success to himself, but
all to the blessing and providence of the gods. As he passed his time
in this manner, admired and honored by mankind, Laphistius, an envious
demagogue, going to summon him upon some pretence or other to answer for
himself before the assembly, the people fell into such a mutiny as could
not be appeased but by Timoleon, who, understanding the matter, reproved
them, by repeating the pains and travel which he had gone through, to
no other end than that every man might have the free use of the laws.
Wherefore when Daemenetus, another demagogue, had brought the same
design about again, and blamed him impertinently to the people for
things which he did when he was general, Timoleon answered nothing,
but raising up his hands, gave the gods thanks for their return to his
frequent prayers, that he might but live to see the Syracusans so free,
that they could question whom they pleased.

Not long after, being old, through some natural imperfection, he fell
blind; but the Syracusans by their perpetual visits held him, though he
could not see, their greatest object: if there arrived strangers, they
brought him to se